


The Legend of the Damned

by Slymie



Category: Sea of Thieves (Video Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-08-23 13:49:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16620200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slymie/pseuds/Slymie
Summary: Sea of Thieves is an online multiplayer game.Sounds boring? NOO Totally not!It's a pirates game!So lately they added new content called "Festival of the Damned".This is were I based this story on.So don't worry about things that are canon, because they are not :PYou will dive into the lore I came up with and some lore that already existed in the game.





	The Legend of the Damned

**Author's Note:**

> Hey eveyone! #SOTFestivalContest
> 
> I have written this short story for the Sea of Thieves Festival of the Damned Contest.  
> When I started it, I first wrote it in my own language and later translated it to English.  
> Then I showed it to my oldest brother, because he would then look for any spelling mistakes and such.  
> So a BIG thank you to my brother for helping me out.  
> Hopefully you will have a great time reading my short story! :D

The Legend of the Damned  
‘You are here, good.’  
Tonight sitting in the middle of The George & Kraken Tavern are young brave pirates who of all want to follow up their father and mother pirate to master the wild seas.  
This tavern is located on the island Sanctuary Outpost together with other traders from the Sea of Thieves. The island began to slowly expand itself along the shores with poorly made wooden bridges from planks that sometimes wash ashore or from one of those shipwrecks a few miles off shore that tried to take their last breath despite that they were doomed to sink to the bottom of the sea.  
Those shipwrecks quickly got emptied. Sometimes with a treasure chest full of gold  
All the planks they can get are used to build or repair the bridges.  
Bridges that look like spider legs sticking out from the main land to the sea.  
Tonight is the Festival of the Damned.  
Laughter and cheering could be heard roaring out of The George & Kraken front door.  
At the fireplace sat an old crooked sailor and around him the young brave pirates (who of all want to follow up their father and mother pirate). Despite the old man’s crazy reputation that led to him being called Crooked Roy, he was always welcomed to come and tell one of his legendary pirate stories, but today he was in for something new.  
It had already been a few years since the Festival of the Damned became an official event in the Sea of Thieves. The old man quickly took a big sip from his mug filled with grog so that it was empty at once. He let a loud burp and sighted before he was looking for his first words to start the story with.  
It became quiet fairly quickly in the big room of the tavern. Now the only thing that lit up the room was the fireplace. The colored lights were friendly asked to be put out for Crooked Roy while he was telling his story and also for his own concentration. With the lights out the cheerful mood reduced a little bit. ‘I’ll give ya a sign when you can light the lights again’ he said afterwards to the barmaid Tracy.  
It was really quiet and so Roy started to speak, now that he found his words and put them one by one in the right order to get at the least a decent sentence out of it…

‘The year is 1665.’  
A captain no one remembers the name of, took the fate into his own hands when on a moonless night he sailed out of the harbor of La Isla Mosquito.  
His wife Theresia forbade him! But for the captain there was nothing nor anyone who could have stopped him. Before this there was a time were he earned stacks of gold up to mountains high, because of his brave deeds at sea. For example protecting the city.  
Sadly the greed has gotten him in the head.  
He went hijacking. Raiding and plundering.  
With his secretly build smuggling tunnel to a completely remote part of the city harbor, his house was quickly filled with many riches.  
He built houses for the poor and took care of many bananas for the starving ones in town. Until one day his cover of a benign man was unveiled by the truth of who he really was. The fear of losing his power, his reputation, made him a monster.  
No food nor houses for the poor anymore. He took all his riches onboard his ship “The Damned”.  
He chose his crew to come with, but many refused.  
Only thirteen crewmen chose to come along. To go to who knows where.  
Even if it is for eternity.  
The captain’s wife begged him that night not to leave. She forbid him!  
‘Not on a moonless night’ she kept telling him. ‘You know what you call upon yourself if you leave then!’ She tried so hard and she was so desperate.  
‘Or else I will do it! Then Poseidon may decide your fate.’  
The captain responded ‘Nothing shall stop me to sail out tonight. Moon or no moon, storm or no storm, ban or no ban, even if it is for eternity.’  
The door to the smugglers tunnel then shut when the captain closed it as he went through.  
The bang of the door closing was so hard that Theresia (presumed soon to be widow) collapsed to the ground. Not much later she got up and walked with vengefulness towards the city to look for Calypso, the witch of the wild waters.

A few years flew by and The Damned, together with her crew and her captain was never head of again. Some speak of a ghostly appearance in the form of a ship with multiple different colors. At least that’s what they thought. Some saw a white light, some say purple and others said they saw a bloody red light overwhelming the sky.  
It could have been the horizon as well, but these sightings were only told to happen near the uncharted sea.  
The stories of one or another ghost captain rumored around the whole sea and at the end these rumors ended up at a captain with a French origin, but he had a pure English voice.  
He was a dangerous pirate named Captain Gaillard. He couldn’t care less about the stories. It’s only superstition. It are myths, an old wives’ tale.  
Despite the legends he still began to delve into them. The uncharted sea caught his interest the most.  
He told his crew that. What he wanted most was to put the uncharted areas on a map.  
One day he sailed to the unknown, but at night, at a moonless night to be exact, a storm crossed his path. Gaillard’s ship lost track at sea. In the meantime they were already ending up in the middle of the unknown.  
Gaillard’s crew couldn’t hold the grog back and so they puked the grog overboard.  
But still standing at the helm was Captain Gaillard. With all his force he held the helm as still as possible while everyone was hoping for the storm to change course. Even if it is just for a few minutes.  
For a moment everyone thought they should prepare their sailor’s grave when they started hearing a lightly yet slightly soft howling in the distance.  
‘It are mermaids!’ shouted one of the crewmen.  
‘No, it are angels.’ Someone else said.  
‘Or could it be the Hungering one or the Kraken!’  
Fear wandered on the deck.  
And as they uttered nonsense (Gaillard found it nonsense) the lightly and soft sounds of howling got stronger!  
It didn’t come from the north nor the south. Not from under or from the sides.  
Above them!  
Above them appeared a ship. You could hear the ghostly ship’s wooden construction creaking, together with the howling of something unusual when it first touched Gaillard’s ship by the top of the masts!  
Now the howling came from the hold of the ship that was floating above them.  
Poor souls that didn’t survive on sea, Gaillard thought. The howling of those who may never get salvation from the person standing at the helm of the ghostly ship. Gaillard couldn’t believe his eyes of what he saw.  
He just thought it might as well be a cloud in the shape of a ship. But if that was the case then why is there no crew of the dead rising out of the sea. But he also never believed in those stories. He probably wouldn’t believe those stories even if he was given gallons of grog to drink up.  
Gaillard suddenly let go of the helm like someone or some force pulled him away.  
The anchor shot into the depth and the sails hoisted up.  
No one of Gaillard’s crew touched anything when this happened.  
Gaillard's ship was stuck in a whirling storm wind. Such a kind of storm that the captain of The Damned cost his fate.  
The storm slowly diminished in power and the howling stopped.  
The ghost ship blew like the wind to the water surface in a smooth spiral turn until it was neck to neck with Gaillard’s ship in the water.  
It now dawned to Gaillard that the stories were much worse than he was ever told.  
Captain Gaillard walked slowly but steadily from the helm down the staircase to the main deck with all the canons.  
Above the captain’s cabin door of the ghostly ship was a name, carved or either painted.  
From the letters that he could make out he quickly came to realize it read “Ferry of the Damned”. The sign stood between two overwhelming statues of a Hippocampus, but with horns. Basically a sea horse with a horn. The same goes for the figurehead that also was a Hippocampus. The Hippocampus at the bow looked with cursed eyes of which anyone would say that those eyes fear no devil.  
On the main deck, sharp wooden beams protrude between each canon on the deck of The Damned, but above all it was extremely quiet between both ships.  
A Captain that suddenly appeared at the helm walked down the stairs.  
At each step the chains that the man wore, slammed against each other and the steps began to creak more often.  
The ship showed an unusual appearance in a mix of blue and green light. For such a darkness that was present on the ship there still was a couple of glittering white lights. In particular a big beacon floating in the center of the deck.  
The beacon was lit and the fire they saw… Well, the fire shouldn’t even have existed there. For everyone on Gaillard’s ship it was too unbelievable. The lit beacon showed flames of white, but it looked more like a pure white mist that grew out of it in many directions. An untamed flame as it would seem.  
The Captain of The Damned looked with his one eye (The other eye was covered with an eyepatch) straight at Gaillard and showed a wide devilish smile on his face.  
‘You, captain Gaillard…’ echoed with a low, strong voice from The Damned. ‘You have dropped damnation onto yourself.’  
‘No!’ yelled Gaillard desperately. ‘I have come here to chart the sea. Not to play with my fate.’  
The words from Gaillard caused an even bigger more devilish smile on the man’s face. He began to laugh like the devil, but then he halted himself and he spoke again. ‘You wish salvation?’  
Gaillard couldn’t exactly understand what the man meant so he tried to ask for a clarification, but the devilish captain held him silent. ‘Silence!’  
‘I’ve seen more like you. Ya would get scurvy within a day or get eaten by a shark.  
A lot like you crossed my path and failed me.  
Even when the task was so bloody easy, but as you should know. You never underestimate the danger of the Sea of Thieves. They aren’t just 1,2,3 done.’  
Gaillard briefly interrupted the man to say: ‘Sea of Thieves? What is that if you allow me to ask.’  
‘Aahh’. With a warm gesture for yet such a shady man he gained his interests in Gaillard. He told his story like he hasn’t done so many times to the poor souls who crossed the path of The Damned. The man told about a whirling storm wind and that his ship turned against him. ‘My crew collapsed to the ground and turned into mist. Forever to be stuck in the hold of The Damned.  
It was like Poseidon or one or another curse that stepped onboard that changed the rules of life. It could have been my wife who cursed me, I first thought, but then something really did step onboard. There suddenly was a woman face to face with me.  
I assumed her for being a witch!  
She didn’t came to consult though. She banished me from my life. She decided my fate.  
Her voice was so pure. So pure that I still remember every single word.

“Captain of the Ferry of the Damned. Sailed out on moonless night.  
In whirling storm wind you abandoned your wife. Your ship chose ardent the high burning seas.  
Doomed to be a phantom, to sail for eternity.  
When thy left harbor a big mischief awakened. And for you it waited.  
Captain of the Ferry of the Damned. A toy of devilish lust.  
Appears in darkness and never finds rest.  
Yet thy can have purpose. Light the fates of flame.  
So pirates can play the game.”

‘Years past and many failed me to fulfill the task I cannot do.  
I can’t see the beacons in the dark. I can’t see anything in this darkness.’  
The captain of the Damned now sounded even more desperate.  
‘I want to see the world again.  
At least you can try to help me. You are already stuck with the death like me anyway.’

Roy, the Crooked Roy paused here for a moment.  
He looked around him and he saw a filled tavern with all eyes pointed at him. It was as quiet inside the tavern as it was outside.  
Roy picked up a piece of wood and threw it in the fireplace.  
The fire grew bigger and especially warmer.  
“Fire” is what Roy then thought out loud and immediately he knew where to continue his story.

Gaillard stepped closer to the railing of his ship and he quoted him on what he said.  
Again Gaillard wanted clarification about his fate.  
The captain of The Damned offered him a task of which, if Gaillard succeeds, the life of his crewmen and his own will be spared.  
‘The Sea of Thieves you asked for is an unknown area at sea. The one you refer to as “the unknown”. For as far as I can remember it hasn’t been charted since 1665. I don’t think anyone has tried yet. The balance between life and death is what I am responsible for. Aye… The balance between life and death…  
See, I chose who may return to their pirates life.  
Sadly this isn’t possible because of the fire in the beacons across the Sea of Thieves is out.  
One of the sharp wooden beams between two cannons fell towards Gaillard’s ship and formed a plank to walk across. ‘Come.’ Said the man on The Damned.  
Only Gaillard was allowed to walk the plank onto the ghostly ship. ‘You see this beacon here? The one with the white flame.’  
Gaillard nodded. At the same time Gaillard’s face was crooked with tension.  
‘This is the Well of Fates’ the man said.  
‘There are many beacons spread across the Sea of Thieves of which all must be provided with a color. I assume you believe in colored flames after you have seen all the things thy have seen now.’ That last sentence he said with a mocking laugh.  
So it’s your task and the ones of your crew to ignite the beacons across the Sea of Thieves.  
Gaillard responded: But I’m not sure why this is so special to ignite all the beacons. What has it in common for returning the death?  
The man paused for a brief moment before explaining the Well of Fates.  
‘Every color depends on the way a pirate perished on the Sea of Thieves.  
Here, hold your lantern high and close to the beacon.’  
Gaillard did what he was told to do.  
‘As ye see the colors of the most memorable deaths change the color of your lantern.’  
said the man. First green, then blue, as third purple, after purple came pink, then red took it’s turn and last but not least a white flame moved into Gaillard’s lantern.  
‘Good’ chuckled the man. ‘Too good to be true, isn’t it?  
So as I said. Across the Sea of Thieves twelve beacons are scattered over four regions. Twelve of which three in every magnificent region which I have been able to watch over all this time. The Shores of Plenty, The Ancient Isles, The Wilds and The Devil’s Roar. Now with the colors you received from the Well of Fates you can ignite the beacons, but don’t you ever forget to use at least one of each color.  
If all beacons are lit and the flames can be seen from high in the sky, then the lost souls might find their return to the Sea of Thieves.  
Green for those who their lives got deprived by Cursed Bones.  
Blue for the ones where the shark was a bit faster.  
Purple to return if they couldn’t maneuver through poisonous snakes on the islands.  
Pink when a pirate is overpowered by the other pirate.  
Red for when it has gotten the pirate too hot under their feet.  
And for white they may return when a whirling storm wind decides their fate.

Although their lives aren’t forever, because one day they’ll come and they will join the well.  
And if you fail me. Thy too shall sail for eternity.

Gaillard was listening with much bewilderment.  
But now it was time. Time to sail the Sea of Thieves to make it something to be proud of.  
Gaillard walked with his lantern across the once fallen sharp wooden beam, back to his ship.  
Before sunrise the captain of The Damned said ‘Hopefully your ship is worthy to succeed the task. What’s her name?’  
On which Gaillard responded ‘The Kraken’.  
‘Good’ said the man. ‘Remember if you fail, thy too shall sail for eternity.  
And when the first sunlight struck above the sea, The Damned disappeared.  
The Ferry of the Damned. A captain with a devilish lust.  
Only appears in darkness and never finds rest.  
No spiral turn or the howling of lost souls anymore.

It became so light outside that you could look for many miles in the distance.  
More and more islands came into view. Islands of which no one had ever charted them.  
Two weeks quickly past and in that time Gaillard succeeded of becoming the lightbringer of the Sea of Thieves.  
Twelve beacons were ignited with the most beautiful colors of the seven seas.  
Even his own ship, The Kraken, was lighted with the festive gift of the Ferryman.  
On their adventure through the Sea of Thieves they survived megalodon attacks, kept the big tentacles of a sea monster on a good distance and they battled many cursed skeletons on land, but most importantly they charted the sea.  
When all beacons were lit, The Kraken could once again sail proudly on the sea.  
In the evening they were visited by the ghostly ship again. By the man behind the helm.  
The man’s humor hadn’t changed the slightest, but he was proud. Finally he could see the lights on the sea that lighted the islands for him and the souls to find their way back.  
He told everyone on Gaillard’s ship that the once lost souls that crossed his path in the moonless nights were know send back to the Sea of Thieves. They got their salvation and they will start making many outposts scattered across the Sea of Thieves.  
The man also recommended Gaillard and his crew to start their own outpost in The Shores of Plenty. He pointed with his index finger in the far distance to the West – by Northwest and out of nowhere little lights appeared just above the horizon.  
‘That is where I suggest your outpost to be build. See it like a sanctuary.’  
The Kraken began to sail towards the lights and the closer she got, the bigger the distance between each light became.  
Just before the crew went ashore, they thanked The Ferryman for his generous act and they promised to stay away from the death as long as possible.  
Just like the last time, the sun was about to rise and the first lights of dawn struck above the sea and The Ferry of the Damned disappeared.  
A captain with devilish lust. Only appears in darkness. And for some may show kindness. Yet thy can never rest. Because the perished pirates need his trust.  
Fairly quickly everything on this island was discovered and charted.  
Not much later Gaillard came with the idea to start a tavern for the festive mood they had earned.  
Building quickly started and within two months a tavern of two stories big was built against a massive rock on the main island.  
There were conversations and doubts on how they should name the tavern.  
The one thing they agreed on was that ‘The Kraken’ should have a part in the tavern’s name. Most things of The Kraken got used to build the tavern after all.  
The name on the island was easily considered to be Sanctuary Outpost, but that was nothing the crew debated about. That was more or less inspired by The Ferryman in the first place.  
One of the crewmen asked Gaillard for his full name.  
‘George Roy Gaillard.’ The captain answered.  
‘George?’ repeated the crewman.  
on which Gaillard responded ‘Aye, my mother was from England, but she sadly perished in an enormous fire.’  
‘My condolences Captain…’ The Crewman said. ‘But maybe George would fit nicely in the name, wouldn’t it?’  
‘Captain what do you think about “The George & Kraken Tavern?’  
And so this very tavern was named “The George & Kraken Tavern.  
For the years that passed, many pirate legends had stepped foot on this land and drank grog at this bar.  
In the same years that passed. Gaillard. The man I told you about, began to be a little bit crooked.  
‘Crooked Roy’ as you like to call me.' said Roy while laughing.  
‘And because of the man I met all these years ago, we now celebrate in his honor the Festival of the Damned. Roy then nodded at the barmaid and she assumed it to be the sign Crooked Roy said he was going to give. Tracy the barmaid with the help of other bartenders lighted the candles and lanterns into many magnificent colors.  
The audience that listened attentively this whole time fell like they awoke by the colorful lights. They cheered in honor of the Festival, but most of all they honored Gaillard (Crooked Roy) and the Ferryman.  
Gallons of grog went down the throats of many pirates that night.  
This year’s festival the singing was the purest and the best than it has ever been.  
The Festival of the Damned was the biggest this year and they sang with full proudness the sea shanty: “We shall sail together!”  
Later that night Gaillard walked along the shores of Sanctuary Outpost.  
On sea where many ships with colorful lights to be seen.  
And somewhere in the sky on this moonless night he saw the appearance of The Damned.  
Just like the first time he saw her, but there was a good vibe onboard this time.  
Gaillard could feel that.  
Even if the Ferryman was still a grumpy ghost captain.


End file.
